Surprisingly, I didn't receive any hate mail for my "The Global Warming Scam" post. I expected somebody to comment "FSK, you're a scumbag for suggesting that carbon dioxide does not cause global warming!"

The phrase "greenhouse gases" is itself a fnord phrase. That phrase has as a hidden assumption "Carbon dioxide causes global warming.", a statement I consider to be not proven.

The latest "carbon dioxide control" proposal is called "cap and trade". Superficially, it sounds like a noble proposal. There will be a cap on carbon dioxide emissions. You can buy or sell the right to produce carbon dioxide. It sounds like a free market solution!

The fallacy is the way that the carbon credits are allocated. Old businesses are grandfathered. If you own an old coal-burning power plant, then you receive a carbon credit equal to your emissions at some time in the past. If you want to build a new coal-burning power plant, then your only option is to buy a credit from someone else. The only fair way to allocate carbon credits is "Every person gets an equal credit." None of the proposals include a uniform allocation per person. Insiders always get preferential treatment.

Viewed this way, the carbon credit proposal is welfare for existing businesses, while a barrier to entry for someone who wants to create a new business. If you read the fine print of the proposal, it's thinly veiled corporate welfare.

The carbon credit proposal is further corporate welfare for the financial industry. They will create the new market where the carbon credits are bought and sold. That is silly, because the financial industry is already leeching a pretty large percentage of all economic activity.

Another defect in the carbon dioxide control laws is that "developing 3rd world countries" are exempt. The carbon cap in the USA provides an economic incentive to move jobs from the USA to other countries.

The carbon tax is essentially a tax on all economic activity. There already is a huge tax on all economic activity: the income tax. Even though I work as a software engineer, I still use electricity. Some carbon was burned to provide me with that electricity. When I take the subway or buy goods in the store, energy was consumed. This new tax is pretty much unavoidable.

The only way that agorists could avoid the carbon tax is to find ways to generate energy outside the control of the State. One example would be an agorist ethanol manufacturer. If Zero Point Energy technology is real, then that would make the global warming debate silly.

These carbon tax laws will further strangle the economy. For this reason, my reaction is "Great! Let's wreck the economy even more!" If there's anything that Congress and the President can do to accelerate the collapse of the economic and political system, I'm in favor of it!

Another interesting aspect of the law is that it's phased in gradually over many years, rather than all at once. This means that the damage caused by the law will occur at some point in the future, and the problems may not be directly attributable to the law. Once in place, the Federal Reserve was politically untouchable. Similarly, the carbon tax law probably won't be repealed once it's passed.

State-licensed scientists provide lots of research proving "Carbon dioxide causes global warming." My favorite fnord is a computer simulation proving that temperatures will rise in the future, due to carbon dioxide emissions. Such a simulation has, as an assumption, that carbon dioxide causes global warming. It's built into the assumptions of the simulation, making the conclusion meaningless!

State-licensed scientists receive most/all of their funding from directly or indirectly from the State. Suppose politicians provide lots of funding for scientists who say "Global warming is a real problem!" and they deny funding for scientists who say "Global warming is a scam!" This naturally leads to the result that a majority of State-licensed scientists back global warming. If a politician says "95% of scientists agree that global warming is a problem!", that's nonsense for the same reason democracy is nonsense. The truth is not determined by a majority vote. This is especially true when people are brainwashed to be stupid, or have a financial incentive to be stupid.

Peer review exacerbates the problem. Suppose that a majority of scientists are brainwashed to believe the global warming propaganda. If a scientist comes along and says it's wrong, then he's essentially telling his colleagues "You're all frauds!" Via peer review, it's difficult/impossible for a scientist who challenges conventional wisdom to find a job. The peer review system is actually a great system for slowing the rate of scientific process.

It's amusing to watch the cluelessness. Most politicians now accept "Carbon dioxide clauses global warming!" as an unstated assumption. "The way to solve society's problems is via more government violence!" is another unstated assumption of all politicians. If you see politicians debating the carbon tax law, they aren't debating "Does carbon dioxide cause global warming?" They're debating "Is this a good law, or should we try something else?"

If you read the fine print of all the "Combat global warming!" proposals, they're thinly veiled corporate welfare. As usual, a heavily-hyped issue is an excuse for looting and pillaging.

The pattern is very recognizable. It's pathetically obvious now that I can see the fnords. The mainstream media propaganda surrounding the bailout/TARP proposal is almost the same as the hype surrounding the carbon credit proposal. Just from that correlation alone, I can conclude that there is some funny business surrounding the global warming scare.

2 comments:

"For this reason, my reaction is "Great! Let's wreck the economy even more!" If there's anything that Congress and the President can do to accelerate the collapse of the economic and political system, I'm in favor of it!"

Good article. I agree about cap and trade. It is a new energy tax that will be difficult to avoid.

However, there are ways to avoid it. I ride a bicycle to work most days (no gasoline tax). Agorists and other Do-It-Yourself people across the country are making alcohol stills to make their own energy. Even if the still is legal with a permit, it places the power of distribution back into ordinary people's hands. Energy taxes are less (or non-existent, if you choose).

http://www.alcoholcanbeagas.com/

It's been a noticeably cooler summer in most of the United States this year. I made the observation that "global warming" had to be renamed "climate change".

The guys I was talking to agreed that "climate change" was a better name for it, but then made sure to back up the accepted assumption that the earth was warming up. They wouldn't be caught dead disagreeing with a Politically Correct stance. I just smiled. I had introduced doubt in their minds. I won't push my luck by making myself obnoxious.

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My Favorite Links

Here is a collection of my favorite links.

Personal Finance

For personal finance, my most frequently visited site is Yahoo Finance. Yahoo Finance has the best system for watching your stock quotes during the day. I also like the Motley Fool. Both of these websites encourage you to do independent thinking about finance.

My favorite discount online broker is Vanguard. They are not the cheapest commission-wise, but their customer service has been excellent. Plus, they give a high credit interest rate on the cash portion of your account.

Mises, Rothbard, and Austrian Economics

The school of "Austrian Economics" advocates credit-based money instead of debt-based money. There are two separate websites, www.mises.org and www.mises.net. These philosophies are a precursor to agorism. However, they still hold out false hope that the people who control the government can be convinced to switch to a fair monetary system. They fall short of the correct conclusion that government itself is the problem.

The Mises and Austrian school is still a pro-State theory of economics. They say "government should adopt a sound monetary policy instead of an unsound monetary policy". They fall short of the truth, which is "Who needs a government?"

Agorism and Anarcho-Capitalism

The primary source most commonly cited is agorism.info. Agorism.info has good introductory material, but I'm already looking for more advanced topics. I also found TOLFA interesting. The Molinari Institute has a lot of interesting links.

The source with the most advanced material on agorism is Kevin Carson's The Mutualist Blog.

This link on the History of Money has a lot of interesting bits on how bankers have controlled the world's money supply for hundreds of years or longer. Unlike most other sources, it is very short and to the point. However, their recommended solution falls short of true agorism.

Freedomain is another good read. He doesn't update his blog often, but he has a lot of good stuff posted in the past.

Kevin Carson's Mutualist Blog - This is a great source. He is tough to read at times, but his content is great. He's the best source on agorism I've seen. I like to take his topics and present them in simpler language. He updates his blog sporadically, but he has a lot of great content. It's also worth reading his other books and articles, which are available from his mutualist.org website. I also like the way Kevin Carson frequently links back to his favorite older posts. Kevin Carson's Shared Items is also worth reading; it's a list of posts from other blogs that he finds interesting.

Kung-Fu Monkey. This blog is written by someone who works as a writer in the entertainment industry, which explains the high quality of writing. He sounds like a closet agorist, although he hasn't specifically mentioned that philosophy. This post on the Extrapolated Everyday Bull**** Comparison has promoted Kung-Fu Monkey from my hitlist to my "read regularly" list.

Redpillguy's Blog - His blog is relatively new, so it's hard to judge. He doesn't really update his blog that often. On the other hand, he frequently cites my content, and that's certainly the sort of thing I appreciate.

Tranarchism is another new blog. It's too soon to judge the content. On the other hand, anyone who heavily cites my stuff can't be all bad. It's too infrequently updated.

Wally Conger's Blog is another good read. However, he really has two separate blogs mixed together. He has a lot of good stuff on agorism and libertarianism. However, he also likes to talk about his favorite movies and TV shows a lot.

Blog HitlistThere are blogs I'm currently evaluating to see if they're worth a regular read. I currently manage my hitlist through Google Reader.

Honorable Mention

These blogs have some interesting content, but they don't make it into my regular reading rotation. If they improved their content or improved their posting frequency, then they would be in my regular reading list. I check back occasionally, and on a slow day I might read them.

Bill Rempel - He talks about finance and trading. He really dislikes the Federal Reserve. I'm not sure if he's come all the way to agorism yet, but perhaps he can be coaxed. He's guilty of my #1 blog pet peeve: A PARTIAL RSS FEED!

Bored Zhwazi - Has some nice content, but it really isn't updated that often. It's worth checking back once every month or two.